Composting & Gardening

Composting 

Did you know? In England and Wales: 

• Almost 4 million hectares of soil are at risk of compaction
• Over 2 million hectares of soil are at risk of erosion
• Intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose about 40 to 60% of their organic carbon
• Soil degradation was calculated in 2010 to cost £1.2 billion every year.”

UK Environment Agency, January 2023 

“…food and garden waste account for around 40 per cent of total waste from households. Paper, cardboard and mixed fibres around 19 per cent of the total, metals 5.5 per cent, plastics 11 per cent, textiles 5.4 per cent and wood 4.8 per cent.” 

DEFRA, 14 December 2022 

Composting at home is a way of producing perfect compost to make healthy soil. Adding compost to your garden will help the soil hold water for longer in droughts, help your plants grow healthier and increase the diversity of wildlife in your garden. 

Added to which, composting your waste stops it from going to landfill, which can produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. Even though CO2 has a longer-lasting effect, methane sets the pace for warming in the near term. 

Composting doesn’t need to be messy or smelly. There are methods to suit everyone and every home: 

• For homes without much space – Bokashi fermentation pickles all your food waste in a bucket that will fit under the kitchen sink. Once fermented, Bokashi compost can be poured into a hole in the ground. 
• For quick results – why not try worm composting? Vermicomposting uses a set of stacked containers containing special worms that turn food waste into compost and a natural fertiliser.
• For families and those with lots of food waste – Hot composting bins like the Green Johanna will compost down anything that was once living. You don’t need to remember complicated rules because you can put in meat, oil, shredded paper and pretty much anything made from organic materials.

A helpful slideshow with further information about composting can be viewed here